| Revision as of 03:58, 19 February 2009 editTheDecanome (talk | contribs)36 edits ananchronism (Freudian sublimation is a much later interpretation)← Previous edit | Revision as of 03:59, 19 February 2009 edit undoTheDecanome (talk | contribs)36 edits small tweak (replace ae with æ)Next edit → | ||
| Line 12: | Line 12: | ||
| . | . | ||
| </ref> | </ref> | ||
| In its original Platonic form, this love was meant to bring the two people closer to wisdom and the Platonic ] of Beauty. It is described in-depth in Plato's ] and '']''. In the '' |
In its original Platonic form, this love was meant to bring the two people closer to wisdom and the Platonic ] of Beauty. It is described in-depth in Plato's ] and '']''. In the ''Phædrus'', it is said to be a form of divine madness that is a gift from the gods, and that its proper expression is rewarded by the gods in the afterlife;<ref name=TR02/> in the ''Symposium'', the method by which love takes one to the form of beauty and wisdom is detailed. | ||
| ==Amor Platonicus== | ==Amor Platonicus== | ||
Revision as of 03:59, 19 February 2009
| |||||||||||||||||
|
Platonic love (Latin: amor platonicus) is a deep and spiritual connection between two individuals: within such a relationship there does not exist any form of sexual connection or sexual elements.
At the same time, this interpretation is a misunderstanding of the nature of the Platonic ideal of love which originally was that of a chaste but deep love transcending mortal life. In its original Platonic form, this love was meant to bring the two people closer to wisdom and the Platonic Form of Beauty. It is described in-depth in Plato's Phædrus and Symposium. In the Phædrus, it is said to be a form of divine madness that is a gift from the gods, and that its proper expression is rewarded by the gods in the afterlife; in the Symposium, the method by which love takes one to the form of beauty and wisdom is detailed.
Amor Platonicus
The term amor platonicus was coined as early as the 15th century by the Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino as a synonym for amor socraticus. Platonic love in this original sense of the term is examined in Plato's dialogue Symposium, which has as its topic the subject of love or Eros generally. Of particular importance are the ideas attributed to the prophetess Diotima, which present love as a means of ascent to contemplation of the Divine. For Diotima, and for Plato generally, the most correct use of love of other human beings is to direct one's mind to love of Divinity. In short, with genuine Platonic love, the beautiful or lovely other person inspires the mind and the soul and directs one's attention to spiritual matters. One proceeds from recognition of another's beauty, to appreciation of Beauty as it exists apart from any individual, to consideration of Divinity, the source of Beauty, to love of Divinity. The spiritual ideas of Platonic love — as well as the fundamental spiritual emphasis of all of Plato's writings — have been de-emphasised over the last two centuries.
Plato emphasized chastity in the case of homoerotic attraction, but suggested that recognition of beauty in a person of the same sex may still serve the aim of inspiration. Indeed, in some ways homoerotic attraction may have served Plato's illustrative purposes better than heterosexual love, since in the latter case issues of procreation complicate the picture.
The English term dates back as far as Sir William Davenant's Platonic Lovers (1636). It is derived from the concept in Plato's Symposium of the love of the idea of good which lies at the root of all virtue and truth. For a brief period, Platonic love was a fashionable subject at the English royal court, especially in the circle around Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I. Platonic love was the theme of some of the courtly masques performed in the Caroline era, although the fashion soon waned under pressures of social and political change.
Paradox
The very eponym of this love, Plato, as well as the forementioned Socrates, lived in a period where homosexuality was central to the "Greek history and warfare, politics, art, literature and learning, in short to the Greek miracle". The concept of Platonic love arose in Plato's middle period writings such as Symposium and Phaedrus, within the context of the debate that pitted mundane, sexually-expressed homosexuality against the philosophic — or chaste — homoeroticism. Specifically, in Symposium, Alcibiades attempts to seduce Socrates, but Socrates rebuffs this pursuit and responds that if he does have this power to make Alcibiades a better man inside of him, why would he exchange his true beauty (i.e. the intellectual realm) for the image of beauty (i.e. the physical beauty) that Alcibiades would provide. However, Plato's opinions in the late period of his life are reflected in the last dialogue, Laws, where he condemns homosexuality as "unnatural".
.png)
According to Linda Rapp, Ficino, by Platonic love, meant "…a relationship that included both the physical and the spiritual." Thus, Ficino's view is that love is "the desire for beauty, which is the image of the divine."
Because of the common modern definition, Platonic love can be seen as paradoxical in light of these philosophers' life experiences and teachings. Plato and his peers did not teach that a man's relationship with a youth should lack an erotic dimension, but rather that the longing for the beauty of the boy is a foundation of the friendship and love between those two. However, having acknowledged that the man's erotic desire for the youth magnetizes and energizes the relationship, they countered that it is wiser for this eros not to be sexually expressed, but instead be redirected into the intellectual and emotional spheres.
To resolve this confusion, French scholars found it helpful to distinguish between amour platonique (the concept of non-sexual love) and amour platonicien (love according to Plato). When the term "Platonic love" is used today, it generally does not refer to Plato's views of love. The understanding that Platonic love could be interpreted as masculine eros is alleged by some socio-historical critics to be linked with the social construction of a homosexual identity .
See also
- Interpersonal attraction
- Asexuality
- Romantic friendship
- Sexual abstinence
- Spiritual marriage
- Friend zone
Notes
- ^ "Plato And The Theory Of Forms", Tim Ruggiero, Philosophical Society, July 2002, webpage: PhilosophicalSociety-Forms.
- W.A. Percy, III, "Reconsiderations about Greek Homosexualities," in Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West, ed. B. C. Verstraete and V. Provencal, Harrington Park Press, 2005, pp.47-48
- ^ Homosexuality (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- ^ Plato on Friendship and Eros (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- "Linda Rapp in glbtq"
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)- Gould, T. (1963) Platonic Love. New York: The Free Press.
- "Plato And The Theory Of Forms", Tim Ruggiero, Philosophical Society, July 2002, webpage: PhilosophicalSociety-Forms.
